414: Chapter 411 Mysterious Farmhouse

Snap.

The Domain shattered.

The surrounding farmhouse scene exploded like glass, dissipating into countless points of light. The Hacker stood amidst a stream of data in the Void Realm, tears and snot still hanging from his face, but his gaze had shifted from his previous confusion to—shock, anger, and a hint of lingering fear.

"Holy crap—!"

He took a sudden step back, pointing at Han Chengyu, his fingers trembling.

"You... how the hell did you do it?!"

He raised a hand to touch his head, as if confirming something.

"Good thing I have a data backup! Otherwise, you really would have—holy moly—you, you, you—damn!!"

The Hacker was completely dazed, his words incoherent.

No. He had to run. This guy was too uncanny. He had modified his memory without a sound; how could he even fight this?

He turned around and dove headfirst toward the nearest data stream—

Thud.

He slammed into an invisible wall, was bounced back, and landed hard on his butt.

Han Chengyu looked down at him with his arms crossed.

"You think you can run?"

He raised his right hand and lightly snapped his fingers.

"Come, come, let's do it again."

"Domain Expansion—"

The Hacker's eyes widened instantly.

"No—don't—I—"

The surrounding space distorted once more.

Mysterious Farmhouse.

Sunlight. Grape trellises. The sounds of chickens and ducks. The aroma of a firewood stove.

And a cow.

That cow was plowing a field. Step by step, pulling the plow, it walked steadily. Sweat dripped from the cow's body into the soil. It was plowing with rapt attention.

Two mu of land.

Finished plowing.

Snap.

The Domain shattered.

The Hacker stood in the Void Realm, looking down at his hands—hands that had been hooves just a moment ago. He froze for a full three seconds before suddenly looking up.

"Not you, you mother—!!"

His voice cracked.

"How did you again—I—you—damn!!"

He clutched his hair, his entire being falling apart.

"I can't take it anymore! Stop using that damn Mysterious Farmhouse! Dammit—"

He panted heavily, glaring at Han Chengyu.

"Even Mahoraga would have to plow two mu of land if he came in, wouldn't he?!"

The Hacker held his head in his hands, curling into a ball, his voice carrying a sob.

"Stop messing with me... whatever you want to know, I'll tell you."

Han Chengyu stood before him, arms crossed, and tilted his head.

"You'll tell me?" He let out a laugh. "Why would I need you to tell me? Since I can modify your memory, can't I just look at it directly?"

He paused.

"I've seen it all. Everything."

The Hacker was stunned.

"Ah?"

"Ah?"

"Ah?"

He let out three consecutive "ah"s, his voice getting higher and more desperate each time.

Then he looked up at Han Chengyu with an almost pleading gaze.

"Hiss... can we settle this?"

Han Chengyu looked down at him, the smile on his lips slowly widening.

"At this very moment," he said slowly, "you must be joking."

The Hacker's face turned pale.

Han Chengyu took a step forward, and the Hacker shrank back a step.

"Want to be spongebob?" Han Chengyu asked.

The Hacker shook his head frantically. "No, no! Don't come near me! I... I have an appointment with Somali Pirates!"

Han Chengyu was taken aback for a moment, then burst out laughing.

"Alright, alright, I'm done teasing you." He waved his hand. "I certainly won't torment you too much. Go surrender yourself; go to the The Authorities and surrender."

The Hacker blinked. "Can I... not go to the The Authorities? My physical body is still over there. Can you let me go back?"

"How could that be allowed?" Han Chengyu rubbed his chin. "Hey, I have a bold idea..."

He raised his hand, and a string of glowing code condensed at his fingertips.

"Come, come, I'll set you up with something."

The Hacker watched in horror as that string of code burrowed into his body, unable to resist at all.

"Alright, that's it."

The Hacker looked down to check himself but found nothing.

"What... what did you do to me?"

"I set you up with a little virus," Han Chengyu said nonchalantly. "After you go back, you'd better not do anything bad. If I find out..."

He paused, a brilliant smile on his face.

"The virus will be coming for you."

The Hacker was on the verge of tears.

"I know I was wrong..."

He turned and dove into the data stream, vanishing without a trace.

Han Chengyu clapped his hands and turned toward the Void Realm.

"System, it's done."

[host did a great job.] The System's voice rang out. [However... in his memory, the people behind him are a Doctor and Li Jianguo.]

Han Chengyu raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

[In the organization behind that Hacker, there is that Doctor as well as Li Jianguo. They are all there.]

Han Chengyu's eyes narrowed.

"Fine. I'll go tell Lu Jianchuan and the others in a bit."

[Real World]

At the programmers' workstations, the sound of keyboard tapping suddenly thinned out.

"Eh?"

A young programmer looked up, staring at the screen and blinking.

"He... was stopped?"

The person next to him leaned over. "What? That's impossible, right? With that speed just now—"

"He really stopped! Look, the intrusion source has been cut off!"

"Holy crap, who did it?"

Several people crowded around. The frantically scrolling red warning boxes on the screen had all vanished, replaced by a calm expanse of blue. The firewall was intact, no data had been leaked, and all the pried-open vulnerabilities were being automatically repaired.

"He's gone..."

"He didn't just leave; he was blocked."

"By who? No one on our side did anything?"

The programmers looked at each other, faces full of confusion.

Lu Jianchuan stood behind them and glanced down at his phone. On the screen was still that chat interface with a gray background and white borders. The last message was sent by The Forger: "Let me handle it."

The corner of his mouth twitched, but he didn't say anything.

Just then, a window suddenly popped up on the machine room's main screen.

It wasn't a System pop-up, but a manually generated notification box—white background, black Songti font, with the top line reading:

"To all personnel of the GUPA Network Security Department:"

Everyone was stunned.

Then the second line slowly emerged:

"Do you know why this road is so smooth and easy to walk?"

The programmers stared at the screen; no one moved.

Third line:

"Because you've got no 'shili', brother."

The machine room was silent for a full three seconds.

And then—

"Aaaaaah!"

"Who is this!!"

"Too arrogant! This is way too arrogant!"

"How did he get in? How can he send notifications in our System?!"

The group erupted into chaos. Some frantically tapped keyboards trying to trace the source, some stood up and pointed at the screen cursing, and a few younger ones were already red-faced, whether from anger or shame.

That notification box was still floating on the screen. The last line was the signature:

"Emperor Hantian"

Lu Jianchuan looked at those two words and was silent for two seconds.

Emperor Hantian.